Arthur Frommer has found himself responding to critics on own blog about his ideas on social tourism, or the idea that everyone, even the poor, has the right to a vacation.
As is so often the case, I'm totally with Arthur on this one.
For that matter, I'm totally with the United Nations who proclaimed in 1948:
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitations of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Vacations, holidays, getaways, breaks, whatever you want to call them, are absolutely necessary to all of us.
We need time to see nature, to experience other cultures, to explore, or just to spend with our families playing cards and walking along the beach. We need time to see ourselves and others in a different light if we're to retain any perspective at all in our own lives.
We innkeepers know that better than anyone.
So what's the gripe? Beats me.
We Americans are a generous lot when we want to be. Why not want for others what we want for ourselves?
I'm sure there's an explanation for that. But right now, I've got cookies to bake for neighbors and friends.
